Exhibited in: Land Arts Exhibition at the John Sommers Gallery, UNM in 2005.
Dimensions: 42” x 102” x 18”
Materials: Wood, glass, water, vinyl
Presently, at the site of Otero Mesa, in Southern New Mexico, there is a battle being waged over oil. The government is pushing for oil drills to be placed in this area of wild grasslands, which contains a natural aquifer that could quench the thirst of Southern New Mexico for up to a hundred years. The desire to drill for oil is based on a random, wildcat well that was placed on Otero Mesa –a well that came up with a small amount of oil.
Water Table for Otero Mesa is a direct visual reference to the site. The piece consists of an eight-feet long, three-feet high table, with one hundred drinking straws coming out of the surface, one for each year the aquifer of Otero Mesa could supply. On the underside of the table are one hundred glasses of water. The straws from these glasses penetrate through the top surface of the table. The table is at a height that allows the average viewer to actually drink from this water table. This piece was created to physically represent the bountiful supply available in the natural layers of New Mexico’s desert soil.
The desert, which seems so devoid of provision, actually functions as a beneficial, resourceful system for humans living in the area. The drilling for oil in this site will forever contaminate and taint this water supply, and Water Table exemplifies the importance of water for survival over the temporary necessity for oil. This piece was made in order to educate viewers about the situation going on in their own state, that has been very under-publicized. Water Table also metaphorically presented the pricelessness of this particular desert resource.
